Another "easy" trip

We had the trip from hell from Joplin to Dallas Monday nite. What should have been an easy 7hr run turned into over 11hrs.
It all started when we got assigned the load, we had to wait till the local driver brought it up from Neosho, and should be about 1:30. We finally were call for the load about 4pm AND told the trailer was in the shop, but should be about done. Hmmmm, this isn't sounding so good. I called the shop and was told to come on over and get it. From there , we fueled and got a truck wash on the way out. It was now just past 5pm and we were due in Lancaster by midnite. Time already is not looking good. Weather is also not on our side. As we head hwy 69, it's raining and snowing some. Temp is about 34, so no real problems, yet.
As we get closer to Texas, the snow really starts flying. So much so, I am having problems seeng the road at times. 20 to 30 miles of this, and I decide its time to shut down. There is about 4in on the ground, the plows haven't made it here yet, and the road is packed with snow and visibility is well, not so good. At the Texas border, I pull into a rest area, and shut down, notifying CFI by Qualcomm and calling in. I get told no problem, the load is ok timewise, and to let them know when we roll. We park and sleep a couple of hours, then take a look. The weather front has made it thru, snow has quit, the plows have been thru, and the ground is warm enought to keep the roads wet. Looks good. Well, at least for the time being. We get about 30 min down the road and find the highway shut down. Apparently 2 trucks got together, and jacknifed. We sat another 2hrs waiting for that to clear.
We FINALLY roll into Lancaster about 4am. I don't think we got a late charge because we were shut down for weather and also the accident. We dropped the trailer, picked up an empty and headed over to ConWay Dallas.
ConWay Dallas is close to downtown, luckily it was 5am so not much traffic yet. We checked in, and picked up our next assigned trailer. It was not a hazmat load.
This trip was not bad at all. It had some extra time on it, not due in till 2pm in Kettleman City, Ca. After we were rolling for awhile, GPS had us in at 6am local if we didn't stop. We rolled until I just too tired near Phoenix, and parked in a rest area for a 2hr nap. I really didn't want to because that puts us going thru LA at 6am instead of 4am, but there was no choice.
LA was the zoo I expected going thru during the morning rush time. We have to wonder why people CHOOSE to do that on a daily basis. Oh well, we were not up against the clock, so we just took our time. We followed I-10 in till we took Cali 57 north a few miles to hook up with I-210. That took us across the north side of LA till we hooked up with I-5, and came north to Kettleman City. We stopped at a Pilot about 30mi from our destination, fueled, showered, and finished the trip.
When we arrived at the Conway yard here, it was dead. The security guard checked us in, we dropped the trailer, and parked and slept a couple of hours. Our next load is not to pick up till 4am so we are relaxing a little.
Next load has us going from here back to Abilene, Tx which is about a 1450mi run. The last was 1580mi., plux the 366mi from Joplin to Lancaster, so we are putting 'em down now some.
I think this time we'll take I-40 out to Santa Rosa, NM, then cut down thru Lubbock to Abilene. Only concern is going thru Flagstaff Az and Albuquerque, NM and the weather. It is great here now, and looks like it should clear out there as we head that way.
Time for some more sleep till our 3am wake up call. Till next time, keep it safe out there!